Court | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Chaitanya Tamhane |
Written by | Chaitanya Tamhane |
Produced by | Vivek Gomber |
Starring |
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Cinematography | Mrinal Desai |
Edited by | Rikhav Desai |
Music by | Sambhaji Bhagat |
Production company | Zoo Entertainment Pvt Ltd |
Distributed by | Zeitgeist Films Artscope Memento Films |
Release dates |
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Running time | 116 minutes |
Country | India |
Languages |
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Budget | ₹3.5 crore[1][2] |
Court is a 2014 Indian legal drama film, written and directed by Chaitanya Tamhane in his directorial debut. The film examines the Indian legal system through the Mumbai Sessions Court trial of an aging protest singer, Narayan Kamble (Vira Sathidar), who is accused of encouraging a manhole worker to commit suicide through one of his folk songs. It also stars Geetanjali Kulkarni, Pradeep Joshi and Shirish Pawar.
The film's music was composed by Sambhaji Bhagat while Mrinal Desai and Rikhav Desai served as its cinematographer and editor, respectively. Tamhane was curious to see the difference between the real courtrooms and the way they were depicted in films. He wanted to explore the "judicial nightmare" in an Indian setting after coming across several real-life cases. His friend Vivek Gomber agreed to produce the film and also acted in it. The crew consisted of newcomers and the actors were non-professionals. There are four languages spoken in the film: Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati and English. Most of the dialogue is in Marathi as it is set in Maharashtra. Laws are read out in English. The defense lawyer is a Gujarati and speaks Gujarati language.
Court premiered at the 71st Venice International Film Festival in 2014, where it won the Best Film in the Horizons category and the Luigi De Laurentiis award for Tamhane. The film went on to win 18 other awards at several film festivals. It premiered in India at the International competition section of the 2014 Mumbai Film Festival and was released theatrically on 17 April 2015. Upon release, the film received critical acclaim and went on to win the National Film Award for Best Feature Film at the 62nd National Film Awards.